 The Knot County Fiscal Court held a public forum hearing to address concerns from residents regarding the Kentucky Lithium Project Wednesday, March 20th. The project will bring over 100 jobs to the area and will be located in the Bates Branch community. It was contacted by Kentucky Lithium. They had an interest in putting a lithium plant in the Bates Branch community of Beaver and there's an old coal temple there and we've done some discussion and done some research on the project and it looks to be a really good project with the environmental and health hazards that there's a possibility of having. But you know we have the Energy Environmental Cabinet who regulates a lot of these restrictions and is going to assure that things are kept safely, things are kept clean and if the Kentucky Lithium gets out of line any at all they're going to step in I'm sure to shut them down. At Audiology Associates of Prestonsburg you can live your life the way you want and find the freedom of better hearing. With 40 years of being in the hearing care industry you'll experience patient care that is specific to you with exceptional follow-up care that ensures your hearing and balance needs are being met. Audiology Associates at 1428 Northlake Drive in Prestonsburg. Many residents raised concerns about potential accidents contaminating the soil and water, carcinogens, accident response and the overall environmental impact to the project's representatives in attendance. So what we're producing a lot of people get confused with lithium metal it's actually a lithium concentrate that the flame ability is zero so there's no risk in flames or anything from the material we're producing. From the test that we have recently ran here in the last couple months we don't see any more carcinogens released than any normal facility within the U.S. In addition to being a fiscal benefit to the county with additional tax revenue and utilities income the plant plans to prioritize hiring eastern Kentucky residents. We're bringing the project to Knot County and the reason we chose to bring the project to Knot County is because this region this area the eastern part of the United States we feel have the hardest work and ethic there is. Um traditionally mining coal was what we've all worked in and anyone willing to mine coal knows the strain to the physical body and stuff so processing lithium will be somewhat of what we would call cake walk so we feel that bringing the lithium processing plant to Knot County is of huge value for the investors. To view the full public hearing go to Knot County Fiscal Court on Facebook. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.